Drake‘s much ballyhooed album Views is on pace to sell more than 800,000 copies in its first week according to Billboard.
While the immediate reactions to the Drake Views album have been mixed, one thing is for certain, the weeks long roll out of the album seems to have worked. The Canadian rapper’s fourth studio album is on pace to outperform his previous first week sales numbers by a long shot.
Per Billboard:
Provided that Views’ sales are as robust as predicted, then it would also give Drake his largest sales week ever. His current high was logged when Nothing Was the Same debuted at No. 1 with 658,000 sold in its first week, according to Nielsen Music.
Views follows Drake’s five consecutive No. 1-debuting full-length albums on the Billboard 200: What a Time To Be Alive (with Future, in 2015), If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (2015), Nothing Was the Same, Take Care (2012) and Thank Me Later (2010). His only charting album to miss the top was his debut EP, So Far Gone, which peaked at No. 6 in 2009.
If Views starts with over 800,000 copies sold, it will be just the 10th album to sell more than 800,000 copies in a single week in the past 10 years — and the first by a male artist to do so since Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience launched with 968,000 in the week ending March 24, 2013.
The Drake Views album was released Friday, April 29 after more than a year of anticipation. The album is currently an Apple Music exclusive, but will be come available on other streaming platforms this Friday, May 6. The albums songs however did become available on Pandora this weekend.
The album has dominated the Hip-Hop news cycle over the last couple of weeks, largely due to Drake leaking information about the album via social media. The album was initially titled Views From The 6, but was changed to Views in the weeks leading up to release.
Photo: OVO
